These gluten-free Pan Fried Dumplings, also known as Potstickers, are as springy as the ordinary ones! They’re stuffed with juicy veggie filling under the crispy wrapper!
Plain Rice Noodle Soup and Boiled Seasonal Veggies (Yau Choi 油菜) with Oyster Sauce are best dishes to serve with these golden crispy Pan Fried Dumplings, which are allergy free! Everyone can enjoy this homemade Hong Kong-style meal without stress!
The idea of combining different gluten-free flours comes from a famous dim sum – Crystal Dumplings (Seoi Zing Gau 水晶餃). Crystal Dumplings are originally gluten-free and their wrappers are made with sweet potato starch, glutinous rice flour (sweet rice) and cornstarch. The appearance of the wrapper is a bit translucent and the texture is chewy and elastic. To imitate the wrapper of traditional Pan Fried Dumplings, I have to make my gluten-free wrapper less transparent while keeping the texture springy.
TEXTURE OF THESE GLUTEN-FREE DUMPLINGS
Springy Wrappers
Inspired by the wrapper of Crystal Dumplings, I used sweet potato starch, white rice flour, glutinous rice flour and tapioca flour to make the wrappers of these gluten-free dumplings. As you may know the role of these flours in baking, most of them create stretchy and elastic texture, so you can imagine how our dumplings taste like. By using white rice flour, I wanted to add the rice aroma to the dumplings as well as making the wrappers opaque, like ordinary dumplings.
You might think that it’s a little bit complicated to combine so many types of flours. We can actually make things easier by pre-making a ‘Dumpling Blend’ for future use! Just like what we do in baking. Trust me, the work is totally worth it! Continue to read or scroll down directly to the recipe card!
Juicy Veggie Filling
Apart from using cornstarch or potato starch while cooking the filling, we can also make good use of different veggies to create juicy filling! First thing first is to understand their characteristics. Squashes will release liquid when heated and become the juice, so I picked them as part of the filling. Their mashy texture can also stick all the other filling ingredients together to make wrapping easier.
Instead of squashes, you may use tofu for the filling. It’s also very delicious and it’s commonly used in vegan dishes, but I myself still prefer the golden color of squashes!
SWEET POTATO STARCH VS. SWEET POTATO FLOUR
They play a totally different role in cooking. Sweet potato starch is used for creating a chewy texture and is commonly used in asian-style savory cooking, such as Taiwanese taro ball, Hong Kong-style dim sums and Chinese noodles. It can be used as a thickener and stabilizer. Meanwhile, sweet potato flour usually takes part in baked goods just like sweet potatoes do.
You may try to find sweet potato starch in Asian grocery stores or supermarkets. Be careful that the package of the starch is sometimes confusing as the name may be labelled as ‘Sweet Potato Flour’ like the one below. You can tell from their appearance – sweet potato starch is white in color (see below picture) while sweet potato flour is usually pale yellow.
HOW TO MAKE RAINBOW WRAPPERS
One reason why I love veggies is that I can always create vibrant dishes using their nature colors. There are so many colors of plants you can choose! In this recipe I used beet powder, carrot juice, curry powder, spinach juice and purple cabbage juice to ‘dye’ my dumplings naturally. A simple way to make your dish attractive and increase your appetite!
WAY TO WRAP & PLEAT DUMPLINGS
There are numerous ways to pleat dumplings. You can choose your preferred way to pleat the dumplings and I’m just showing the classic way to make it (please ignore the mess in the video and this is the most authentic video I’ve ever made!).
Pleating dumplings is just so therapeutic and enjoyable!
WAY TO COOK DUMPLINGS
Pan Fried
This is how I cook my rainbow crispy dumplings in this recipe. First we pan-fry the dumplings until the bottom of them turns golden brown, then pour plenty of water onto the pan and put the lid on so as to cook the top and the inside. When the water evaporates and the top of the dumplings becomes crispy, they’re ready to serve!
Steamed
Steam the dumplings with bamboo steamer for 5 minutes over high heat. If you don’t have a bamboo steamer, steam the dumplings in your normal way but wrap the pot lid with cloth to prevent water running onto the dumplings.
Boiled in Water or Soup
Honestly I haven’t tried this method with my gluten-free dumplings yet. Cooking dumplings in boiling water or soup is a very traditional way in Chinese cuisine. People love to serve them with noodles too! I think I would try this way next time!
STORAGE
If you cannot finish the cooked dumplings within the day, you can store them in the refrigerator for up to one day. The wrapper cannot stay elastic if longer than that. Pan-fry them again to serve.
MORE ASIAN-STYLE/HONG KONG-STYLE RECIPES 更多亞洲/港式食譜
- HK x Viet-style Rice Paper Spring Rolls 炸米紙春卷
- Vegan Kimchi Turnip Cakes 純素泡菜蘿蔔糕
- Gluten-free Pan-fried Veggie Buns 無麩純素生煎包
- Hong Kong-style Vegan Chow Fun 港式乾炒河粉
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Gluten-free Vegan Rainbow Crispy Pan Fried Dumplings 無麩純素彩虹煎餃子
Ingredients
For Filling
- 308 grams squashes/pumpkins cooked & mashed – 1 1/2 cup
- 6-7 fresh shiitake mushrooms finely chopped – 4/5 cup
- 1 medium carrot finely chopped – 180g
- 178 grams cabbage finely chopped – 2 cups
- 1/2 onion finely chopped – 120g
- 1/2 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- Sauce: 2 tbsp tamari + 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 10 grams scallions finely chopped – 2 tbsps
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
For Flour Blend (highly recommend using metric measurement)
Mixture (A)
- 140 grams sweet potato starch*see Notes 1 cup + 2 1/2 tbsp
- 70 grams white rice flour 7 tbsps
- 35 grams glutinous rice flour 4 tbsps + 1 tsp
- 35 grams tapioca flour 4 tbsps + 2 tsp
- 1 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
Mixture (B)
- 231 grams sweet potato starch 1 3/4 cup + 4 tbsps
- 112 grams white rice flour 1/2 cup + 3 tbsps
- 70 grams glutinous rice flour 1/2 cup + 1 tsp
- 70 grams tapioca flour 1/2 cup + 3 1/2 tsps
For Plain Wrappers (10 Dumplings)
- 80 grams Mixture (A) 2/3 cup
- 138 grams Mixture (B) 1 cup
- 240 milliliter water 1 cup
For Red Wrappers (5 Dumplings)
- 40 grams Mixture (A) 1/3 cup
- 69 grams Mixture (B) 1/2 cup
- 120 milliliter water 1/2 cup
- 1 teaspoon beetroot powder
For Orange Wrappers (5 Dumplings)
- 40 grams Mixture (A) 1/3 cup
- 69 grams Mixture (B) 1/2 cup
- 120 milliliter carrot juice 1/2 cup
For Yellow Wrapper (5 Dumplings)
- 40 grams Mixture (A) 1/3 cup
- 69 grams Mixture (B) 1/2 cup
- 120 milliliter water 1/2 cup
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder/curry powder
For Green Wrapper (5 Dumplings)
- 40 grams Mixture (A) 1/3 cup
- 69 grams Mixture (B) 1/2 cup
- 120 milliliter spinach juice 1/2 cup
For Purple Wrapper (5 Dumplings)
- 40 grams Mixture (A) 1/3 cup
- 69 grams Mixture (B) 1/2 cup
- 120 milliliter purple cabbage juice 1/2 cup
Instructions
For Filling
- Steam chopped pumpkins/squashes for 20 minutes until tender. Mash them into puree with potato masher.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, sauté onions until fragrant, then add shiitake mushrooms and carrots to fry until they start to soften and be a bit brown. Add cabbage to stir-fry until it becomes moist and fry for a minute more. Season with salt and ground white pepper, stir in sauce and turn to medium-low heat. Sprinkle scallions over and stir in sesame oil, then turn off the heat.
For Flour Blend
- In a mixing bowl whisk thoroughly all flours and starch for Mixture (A) and in another bowl whisk all flours and starch for Mixture (B) until completely combined.
For Dough
- In a saucepan prepare Mixture (A). Add water/veggie juice and coloring powder (if needed for that color). Stir until combined and no lump. In a small bowl prepare Mixture (B).
- Heat the saucepan over low-heat and keep stirring. When small translucent doughs appear and liquid starts condense, turn off the heat immediately. Pour Mixture (B) into the saucepan and stir until roughly combined. Transfer the loose dough onto a dusted surface and knead until it forms a non-sticky dough. Dust a bit white rice flour on it if it is too sticky.
- Roll dough into a long strip and divide evenly into small balls (around 20g each). Cover them with a damp towel to prevent dry out while working.
- Flatten each ball with your palm first, then use a rolling pin to roll it out into an about 3-inch round. Add a teaspoon filling in the middle and pleat to seal (see video in blog post).
Assembling
- In a frying pan heat a tablespoon of oil over medium heat, pan-fry the dumplings until their bottom is golden brown. Pour 80ml (1/3 cup) to 120ml (1/2 cup) water (barely cover the bottom of the pan) into the pan and close the lid to simmer for around 3 minutes until the water evaporates and the top of dumplings is also crispy. Enjoy!
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香港中文